Time is running out on my trip! I love he hustle, the bustle and the sheer vibrance of the city! It certainly is the city that never sleeps!
It is SO hot today - even before 10am it was 93 degrees! We did sleep in a little today as we felt there was not the same urgency to bout and about! Today was going to be a shopping day! Help! As you can understand I can't BEAR shopping! Unless it's for me! I wonder if there will be a honey shop, or a Peruvian antiquities shop or a a magic shop where I could get Sooty a new wand? They said there was a Bear Factory! But there's no way I'm going there! I don't need stuffing, I don't need any minor operations and I am not going to view bears being put through such ordeals thank you very much!
So, we were ready to go - but the girls were not! Well, one of them anyway! So Andrew suggested to Kelsey that they nip alngo see Bryant Park and the Public Library while we waited! We did this and Kelsey enjoyed figuring out which direction the flood water came cascading down towards the library in 'The Day After Tomorrow!' So having achieved this Andrew suggested they nip down to Grand Central Station or a look! So off they went! They got in no bother and I got my photo taken there to add to the collection! So, back out and back to the hotel before the other two get fractious! However, we ended up lea ing by another exit and ended up at the other die of the station! So, if we had nt stopped and asked we could have been heading away from the hotel! Back on track (get it??) we head back to the hotel! Being trained in map reading helped us survive and we were soon steaming back! Our pace was a lot quicker with just the two of us and we soon saw familiar sights signalling we were getting close to our destination!
So, having collected the other two we were off to Times Square so that Mark could see us on one of the webcams there which streamed pictures live all round the world! Apparently he tracked us on at least four different cameras! Having ticked this off the list it was now time to hit 5th Avenue to.....gulp.....shop.....and shop!
First - Fossil! I saw lots of hand bags, bags and MAN bags but nothing that looked remotely old or pre-historic! No ammonites, tribolites or petrified remains of any sort! Andrew did look petrified once or twice when Linda picked up hand bags....but she did put them down once the assisted wrestled them off of her!
Second - a jewelers to see Panora beads! No New York ones but an apple which apparenty will do!
Third - Banana Republic! Well, fr all the time we were in I did not see ANY bananas and was
not asked for my passport once!
Third - H and M! Four floors of the same thing! Is there not one in Aberdeen?
Fourth - Forever 21! SIX floors of clothes for the young at heart! Gents - yes.....you've guessed it......SIXTH floor and not one thing for the discerning bear!
Now, do you want to know why it's called Forever 21? Well, it has something to o with being in it FOREVER!!!! 6 floors, LOTS of clothes and very few changing rooms! We left the ladies queueing r the changing rooms and waited by the door! Seats for the waiting gents? NO, not one! Anywhere for bears to wait? NO!
After getting so disenchanted by the wait we fought our way through the customers to the back AND THY WERE STILL IN THE QUEUE!
FOREVER 21? You enter as a 21 year old and leave with a bloody zimmer 40 years later! By the time you escape the clothes either no longer it you or they do not suit you! And don't start about queueing to pay! It would have been easier to go home and order online AND wait for delivery! Perhaps they should go into partnership with FOSSIL as they are made for each other!
Fifth: Abercrombie and Fitch!
Now we side stepped this as Lauren decided she might want to get an iPod touch! So we headed to the Apple shop at the junction of Fifth and 58th!
Any way - A and F first! From the visit we had yesterday I could place it in the category of the designer shop for the young with more Money than sense! It is similar to Holister and Jack Wills! They want to seduce you with their great products (at high prices) but insist on making things difficult on two counts!
i. The shops are almost totally in darkness! So you can't see a damned thing and spend half the time squinting at the goods, let alone trying to suds out the size, and the other half apologising for continually knocking into people!
ii. They also insist on all their workers being of model like standard so that nt only can you not see what you ate buying you just know that when you wear it it won't look the same as it does on the assistants! But, that's why it's dark....so you can't see how bad you look in comparison and you can't see that it is two sizes two big for you! However, when an assistant does go past there is a slight increase in the available light as when they see you struggling to see what you have and how silly you look they SMILE and their perfect teeth cause an increase in the ambient lighting! Oh yes....and they all must ge at least 6 foot plus and o wider than a telegraph pole - and that's just the ladies!
Not only that but they had bare (not bear!) assistants at the door o that you could get your photo taken next to a tall, athletic, teeth glistening hunk before trying to find what you are after! How sexist! Lady assistants there? NO! Discrimination or what! If the ladies get it why not the guys?
So, we avoided all of this and went to the Apple Store! One of three stores in Mnhattan this was a subterranean shop! You entered and descended into the depths! As opposed to 'A and F' above and Jack Wills, Apple shops exude light like no other! Their products must be seen in the brightest, clearest light to show their magnificence! It was like the Aberdeen store but on STEROIDS! it was HUGE! Is this what they keep referring to as 'The BIG Apple'? It certainly was!
However, it was all in vain! Lauren changed her mind - but in the meantime Andrew went round as many iPads as possible setting them to show MY BLOG on the screen! Lauren thought he was sad! I thought he was just trying to publicise my ramblings!
So, back we went to meet them VIA the FAO Schwarz shop so Lauren could see the BIG piano and I could get a photo of 'The Barbie Foozeball Table' to post on here later! Perhaps if the USA had entered the barbie team in the final of the ladies world cup yesterday they might have won!
So, we met them.....feeling quite annoyed we had been some time and headed off to a deli for lunch! Note: when Andrew and I nicely commented about the time spent in ETERNITY 21 ( sorry, Forever 21) we got little sympathy!
We went back to the jewellers or the little Big Apple pandora bead and when asked again where we came from from the guy there he extolled about his visit to Scotland to play all the key golf courses - St Andrew's, Carnoustie, Glen Eagles, Cooper Park Pitch and Put and the crazy golf at Cadonnas! When we said that he'd have to come back and play 'Trumpton Course' when Donald finishes it he said he had been playing last week with his friend when Onald had pulled up in his golf cart next anthem and started chatting to his friend who knew him well,
So, we get back to the hotel early and three of them are having some down tine while the other helps me type my ramblings as my furry paws are not good with an iPad screen!
Photos from today will appear in a while! Although, we do know that when you do the blog chronologically for the day it appears in reverse order on the blog! So, if you read this later you will have seen the photos already!
I can't believe I only have two more days to report on left! I wonder? Should I set up my own Facebook page?
Ted
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